Abstract
M.Com.
Business incubators have been seen as strategic tools for helping to grow a country’s entrepreneurial base while reducing the high failure rate of enterprises. Incubators across the globe have been recognised as instruments for urban renewal and community development. .
The South African government has also identified business incubation as a viable tool to help grow Small micro and medium enterprises to become successful and globally competitive, hence the high level of policy commitment to elevate the establishment of incubators. The research was justified by the high failure of SMMEs in South Africa. Current research that exists within Gauteng indicates that incubators fail. A research question that arises is why Gauteng incubators fail.
The study was aimed at determining the reasons for the failure of incubators from the perspective of incubatees and incubator managers in the government owned incubators in the 5 regions of Gauteng: that is the Southern Region (Sedibeng District), Northern Region (City of Tshwane), Central Region (City of Johannesburg), Western Region (West Rand District) and the Eastern Region (Ekurhuleni Metro). Data was collected by interviewing incubatees and incubator managers’ incubator in the five regions of Gauteng Province.
The findings revealed that business incubation faces a number of challenges, like; lack of financial and non- financial support from government, lack of selection criteria from the incubators, government incubatees not having knowledge of government services, incubators operating without operational plans and the lack of partnerships among the three spheres of government.